Neneh Cherry's songs of force

2026 marks 20 years since Hot Chip released The Warning. Their second album leapt from the quiet, reflective electro of their debut and catapulted us all onto the dancefloor.To mark the occasion, we share an episode from 2020 when Joe Goddard and Al Doyle dropped in to Take 5. Th ...  Show more

This month, Gotye's breakthrough album Like Drawing Blood, turns 20. It was the record that took him from bedroom producer to Hottest 100 favourite, showcasing his incredible talent at sewing sounds. The man behind Gotye, Wally De Backer, has been keeping a low profile for a whil ...  Show more

Our latest chapter followed David Bowie in the late ‘60s — a thrilling, colorful time when his creativity soared to new heights. After half a decade of near constant rejection from the mainstream music industry, David had started to rebel. Instead of chasing pop hits, he embraced ...  Show more

Listen to Top 40 pop over the last decade and you’ll notice something weird is happening. The chorus—the emotional apotheosis of a pop song, its dizzying high, its cathartic sing-along center—is disappearing. In its place, artists from Bad Bunny to Taylor Swift are toying with ne ...  Show more

"Strumming my pain with his fingers... Singing my life with his words..."Killing Me Softly with His Song is a song about the pleasure and embarrassment of being seen. The feeling that someone has reached into your deepest, most private feelings, and laid them bare. It's a song ab ...  Show more

If you listen to a lot of music on YouTube, you may have been recommended a video. The thumbnail image is a striking black-and-white photo of a Japanese singer named Mariya Takeuchi. The song, “Plastic Love,” is a lush disco track with deep groove, impeccable string and horn arra ...  Show more